Motivation Monday: Chef offers meal-prep tips and advice

AFTER losing 18kgs, a La Lucia chef says she owes her weight loss mostly to managing her calorie intake, preparing in advance and completing 30-minute online workouts.

Samantha Vandersteen returned home from working on a cruise liner when the country went into a hard lockdown due to the Covid-19 pandemic. She is now the owner of a frozen food business, The Frozen Bistro, also situated in La Lucia.

“During the time of hard lockdown, there was little to do being stuck indoors, so I had a lot of time on my hands. I weighed almost 90kgs and knew for a long time that I needed to lose weight, and this was my chance, so I decided to start meal prepping and formulated recipes for calorie-controlled meals,” she said.

Using the nutritional knowledge she gained in chef school, Vandersteen applied this to creating portion-controlled meals which enabled her to lose 18kgs within a space of eight months.

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Here are some tips from the chef on meal prep and freezing meals:

* Opt for a sandwich for lunch.
That way, you only have to prepare a filling and not an entire meal. Having a sandwich for lunch is not only filling, but you can play with different types of breads – even gluten-free for those that are sensitive to it – and there are a myriad of fillings to keep you from getting bored. Mostly, a sandwich is filling, quick and can be eaten on the go if you’re always in a rush like I am,” said Sam.

* Consider intermittent fasting.
“I personally don’t eat breakfast purely because I’m not hungry in the mornings. This is what they refer to as ‘intermittent fasting’, but I’ve been doing it since before it had a name. This really comes down to listening to your body – not just eating a meal because there’s an unwritten rule somewhere that says ‘time of day’ dictates meals. If you are someone that wakes up starving in the morning, then maybe you are one of those people that are not hungry at lunchtime. Again, listen to your body. Only eating two meals a day also means those two meals can be quite high in calories, allowing for larger portions, and for me, less chance of bingeing after dinner.”

* Invest in a kitchen scale to weigh your portions.
It seems tedious, but you will realise very quickly how off you are with weights, and it can be quite eye-opening – accuracy is key.

*Download an app which helps count calories.
Sam uses Fat Secret.

* Research weekly meal plans, suitable to your calorie intake, for meal ideas.
Google has an endless supply of meal plans which can help inspire your meal prep.

* Have two themed nights a week, such as a Mexican or Italian, where meals relate to food from those countries – this makes things fun, and you even get to experiment.

* Cook your starch on the day you eat it as it is susceptible to freezer burn. The same applies to beans and pasta.

* Freezing pasta may be tricky. Toss the pasta with sauce and a layer of cheese. Lasagne freezes well.

* Cottage pie is perfect for freezing. Place baking paper on top of the mashed potato to prevent freezer burn.

*Choose foil containers as they are easy to put into the oven and are suitable for re-using at home. They also stack well in your freezer, meaning you are making the most of the space you have.

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* Soups are ideal for freezing. For a quick tomato soup – cut tomatoes into quarters and place on an oven tray with garlic cloves, onion and thyme. Drizzle with olive oil and season with salt and pepper. Cover with foil and roast for 30 to 40 minutes until soft. Put in a blender with chicken stock and blend until smooth. Cool and freeze. Add a little less chicken stock so it is thicker, and this same recipe can also be used as a pasta sauce.

*Don’t be scared of cooking legumes – it doesn’t need to be labour-intensive, nor do you need to be stuck at the stove stirring. Here’s what the chef does:

1. In a deep oven dish, place your lentils (after rinsing, of course). For every one cup of lentils, pour 3 cups of boiling water over.

2. For a small batch, put in a quarter onion, half a carrot, a few sprigs of thyme and some garlic cloves. Don’t forget to add a decent amount of salt – this will ensure the lentils absorb seasoning and flavour and will not need to be seasoned again when eating.

3. Cover with foil and bake in your oven at 180˚C for about 45 minutes for whole lentils.

4. Test the lentils to make sure they are soft but not mushy. If they still have a bit of a bite, then put them back in the oven for another 15 minutes and test again – you may need to add a bit more water before putting them back in the oven the second time.

This process can be used to cook dry chickpeas and beans too – just adjust the cooking time accordingly.